


Stepping Onto The Path Beside The Fool

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: Singularity North
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, First Date, Making Relationships Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-28
Updated: 2013-04-28
Packaged: 2017-12-09 18:31:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/776639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As their lives turn down a new path, McKenna Emerson reflects on the long road that first brought her and Kavan together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stepping Onto The Path Beside The Fool

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is inspired and woven around Christian Kane's song _"Right In Front Of You"_.

It wasn’t anyone's fault really. But schedules being what they are, McKenna and Kavan had found themselves with precious little time for each other for the better part of a fortnight. The occasional shared breakfast and a quickly scrawled note left on the table was as much as they’d had time for of late. He’d been away in Tokyo on business, she’d been putting in extra hours at the lab when the problems with the schematics for one of her latest projects finally started to sort themselves out. Neither of them liked it, particularly not as it came at a time when they were working through the sort of important issues that often came up within a good marriage. But really, it couldn’t be helped, so they both bore the situation with grim determination, knowing that eventually their respective workloads would shift once again and they’d finally have the time they needed for each other.

Tossing her bag and coat onto the bench beside the door, McKenna reflected wryly on how very different that line of reasoning was from the person she’d been when they first met. _Age and familiarity certainly do have their advantages? Apart from a few grey hairs and a couple laugh lines, that is,_ she teased herself as she flipped on the lights. What she saw sitting in the middle of their bed made her grin wistfully as she slipped back down the years into memory.

~~oOOo~~

It’d been the distinctive sound of a hand slapping flesh that drew his attention to the couple tucked into a corner of the hallway out of the way of prying eyes. She was dark haired and slender, he was the epitome of a well-groomed and well-heeled ne’re-do-well. As he rounded the corner, Kavan caught sight of a flurry of gestures, explanation for the flesh on flesh sound he’d heard previously. His eyes were drawn to the man’s hands as he continued rapidly signing his heated response. Arms wrapped tightly around herself in a protective hug, the woman shook her head before firing back angrily. Her response came in quiet words sharp as a carving knife and a flurry of complicated accompanying hand gestures.

“That’s not the point, Devon. You lied. You flat out _lied_. Its not my fault if I mistook your intentions if you omitted to mention what they were in the first place.”

Now watching openly from his vantage at the other end of the hallway, Kavan flinched in surprise when the deaf man’s callous answer came not only in gestures but spoken words as well, noticeably slurred and oddly rounded by his inability to hear his own voice.

“You may be surprised to learn I realized that I'm not the man for this.”

“Oh,” she drawled sardonically, “so you’ve only just now come to that realization, is it?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding and signing as well given how furry the word was when formed by his mouth. “ I'm letting go,” he stated firmly.”I thought you should know.”

The woman opened her mouth as if to respond but the man held his hand up, forestalling her argument.

“I hope you’ll respect my decision,” he said with a finality that made it quite clear he wasn’t going to be swayed.

With a smirk, the man turned away, a patent end to the conversation given it was quite obvious he would not be able to hear her should she attempt to reply. Kavan shook himself hastily and continued down the hallways as casually as he could given he’d been eavesdropping just moments before. The man slid by him, shoulder aggressively brushing Kavan a little farther over in the hallway as he made his way back into the lounge where the party was still taking place. Still walking, Kavan considered his options for a moment. The woman slumped back against the wall and curled in on herself even further. Struggling helplessly against his own instincts, Kavan could think of nothing he could do that would have been appropriate in such a situation. So he did the only thing he could; walked past her without a glance as if he’d never overheard the conversation at all.

~~oOOo~~

“Why?” he asked again, dogging McKenna’s footsteps down the hallway.

It was the third time Kavan Emerson had asked her out to coffee. The first time he’d run into her had been at Shrivenham when she’d presented the groundwork for one of the faculty research presentations. His invitation had been made on impulse. She’d turned him down without even glancing up from the papers and books she’d had spread across the table.. Not one to be easily dismissed and always having been intrigued by a challenge, the second time Kavan ran into her he’d asked her out before the presentation even began. While he’d come away from that one with a new hire for his client, he did not come away with a date. Her persistence was beginning to annoy him.

McKenna turned on him, moving so quickly that he had to fall back a step to avoid running into her.

“I was warned about you, you know,” she challenged.

Kavan blinked in surprise. He’d never thought himself to be the sort of man that women warned each other of.

“What exactly have you been told? Because to be honest, I’m a bit taken aback by that statement. The least you could do would be to give me a chance to confirm or deny whatever rumors are being spread.”

She looked him over critically before responding. “I was told to stay away from you. That you were charming, but fickle. Thanks, I’ve had more than my share of that sort of man.” 

McKenna wrapped her arms tightly around herself. It was that, gesture common and yet so distinctive in the way in which she executed it, that finally made the pieces slide into place inside Kavan’s head. The woman and the deaf man at the party. McKenna’s features drifting back and forth through time as her resistance to his overtures finally made sense.

“What you’ve been told is nothing more than rumors. I’m not the man you think I am. But then, the only way for you to find that out would be to let me take you out to dinner.”

“No thank you,” she snapped back coldly.

Kavan stepped forward, closing the space between their bodies and backing her up against the wall. His face went hard with a mixture of determination and anger.

“If I quit this easy, if I just walked away, how would you really feel inside? Would you really be that happy?” He challenged lowly. “Or would you wonder if the man that you’ve been looking for had already come true and been standing right in front of you?”

Eyes wide, for a moment McKenna’s expression was unguarded, showing all the fear and vulnerability of a woman who’d closed herself off to possibility. Within the privacy of his own thoughts, Kavan cursed the man who’d so thoroughly broken her. And he made a promise to himself that whatever happened between them, he would not be the one to compound her poor opinion of his gender’s inherent faults.

“Now, Miss Kensington, I’m only going to ask one more time; might I have the pleasure of your company at dinner?”

Though her expression was still wary, McKenna straightened her back and relaxed her posture, her natural easy grace showing through. “Fine. One dinner. Nothing more.”

~~oOOo~~

Tears streaking her face, McKenna looked at the giant stuffed bear sitting in the middle of their bed. He wore a blue beret and a pair of water pistols were in his paws. The image was utterly ridiculous and yet entirely appropriate. It was the sort of quirky, off-kilter gesture which only Kavan had ever bothered to make on her behalf. 

Looking back on it now, she was endlessly grateful for how persistent he’d been about that first date. After Devon, she’d walled herself off, determined not to be hurt again. Endlessly patient and hotly challenging in turns, Kavan had broken her resistance and proven that there were still men out there worthy of her trust. 

She’d almost walked away from him. From the life-changing opportunity that he presented. But he’d been standing right in front of her. Steadfast and determined, he’d stood there and waited for her to let him in. 

And now she couldn’t bear the thought of how bleak her life would have been if he hadn’t done so.

~~oOOo~~

Ironically enough it’d been a cousin’s wedding that acted as the tipping point in their relationship; the place where she and Kavan went from casually dating each other to something serious. It was one of the ever-so-proper Kensington cousins on her father’s side. Eight years McKenna’s junior, the woman had gone to university and two years later done exactly as her parents expected; come home with a very large and very expensive engagement ring on her finger. 

The wedding invitation had been in a stack of letters and bills waiting for her one evening when she returned home from a date with Kavan. Addressed to Miss McKenna Kensington _and guest_ and the implication had been clear; prove herself to be pursuing a husband of her own, or be found wanting in the eyes of her extended family. McKenna gritted her teeth in frustration.

“What’s wrong?” Kavan asked gently when he saw her toss the stack of mail aside in an uncharacteristically messy heap.

“One of my cousins is getting married,” McKenna replied, shucking her high heels and hanging her coat in the closet.

“One you don’t like?” Kavan asked persistently.

“No,” McKenna sighed, “but I’m going to end up picking a fight with my father over the bloody wedding.”

“I’m sorry,” Kavan shook his head as he settled into an armchair in the lounge, “but I don’t understand.”

“See this?” She asked. Picking up the envelope again, McKenna held it out for his inspection. “ _And guest._ Libby is eight years younger than me. She’s the youngest member of my generation on father’s side of the family. If I don’t show up to her wedding with a date, its going to be seen as a poor reflection on my father. Obviously he hasn’t brought me up right if even my baby cousin has beaten me to the altar.”

“And what’s kept you from the altar?” Still looking down at the invitation, Kavan’s reply was evenly measured in word and tone; a sure sign that he was anything but calm.

McKenna’s eyes snapped up to stare at him in shock. They’d had an unspoken agreement from the very beginning. Their relationship was casual, light-hearted, without any talk of commitment or the future. McKenna had made it clear from the beginning that she didn’t want to talk about it and Kavan hadn’t pushed. Until now.

“I... I don’t know,” McKenna admitted truthfully.

“Well I do,” Kavan retorted, still not looking up from the invitation in her hands.

“What is it then?” She fired back, her temper and insecurities beginning to get the better of her.

“You have a plan,” Kavan began, his voice still even and calm. “Someday soon you want to start a family.”

McKenna opened her mouth to protest but he held his hand up and the intensity of his gaze forestalled her interruption.

“You haven’t wanted to talk about it, but I’m entirely aware that the desire is there,” he admitted, dropping his eyes back to the invitation before he continued. “Well that task is done. Look all you want; you won’t find a better father than me.”

“I have my own dreams - ” McKenna began, her face flushed pink with anger. Who was he to presume to know what she wanted from life.

“I never said that you didn’t,” Kavan held his hands up, his eyes still burning but his voice as calm as ever. “And I’ll stand by you when it seems that no one even cares. I’ll be your best friend. Be with you ‘till the end,” he whispered. “Baby, I’m already there...”

Still staring into the quiet inferno of his eyes, McKenna suddenly found herself without a smart come-back. Who was he to know her heart so well? Who was he to think he could fill the gargantuan shoes she’d created of a dream partner who could never exist? 

_He’s the one,_ her heart replied. 

~~oOOo~~

Libby’s wedding - held six months later and every bit as excruciatingly lavish as McKenna had expected - proved to be the final test. They’d arrived early enough to mingle for a few minutes at the church but without enough time to get cornered into any uncomfortable conversations. McKenna had been nervous. After Devon she’d sworn she wouldn’t bring another man to a family function. No one deserved to have her family inflicted on them. More specifically, no one deserved to have _her father_ inflicted on him. She loved the man with a daughter’s love, but he could be truly infuriating at times. 

Invariably, as soon as the reception began her father hunted them down and demanded an introduction with all the subtlety of a battlecruiser.

“I take it this is the man you’ve been dating, McKenna?” Brigadier Kensington’s eyes raked up and down Kavan’s form, assessing him with quick and brutal efficiency. 

Wincing inwardly at her father’s heavy-handed tactics, McKenna stepped forward and offered him a perfunctory hug and kiss on the cheek, giving Kavan a bit more room to think before the engagement of inevitable wills began.

“Kavan Emerson, I’d like you to meet my father, Brigadier Raymond Kensington.”

Smiling frostily, Kavan clasped the older man’s hand. “A pleasure, sir. Your daughter speaks very highly of you and if I don’t miss my guess, a number of my clients have mentioned you favorably in the past as well.”

“Clients, eh?” The brigadier asked, with a raised eyebrow. “And what line of work would you be in that you’ve run across my reputation.”

“I’m a lawyer, sir,” Kavan replied easily.

McKenna caught the tell-tale creep of color up the back of her father’s collar and resisted the urge to drag Kavan away without further explanation. She’d known it was coming; the confrontation inevitable from the moment she’d agreed to bring Kavan to the wedding with her. That didn’t mean she was looking forward to it.

“I’ve _never_ met a lawyer who was anything but a crook or a con-man,” her father spat out.

“And I’ve never met a general who was anything but bluff and bluster in an argument.” 

Still smiling, Kavan’s quick retort caused a few of the family members nearby to turn their heads. 

“Well I never - “ the older man sputtered with fury and McKenna had to bit the inside of her cheek to suppress a grin as he turned away from them both.

“If you quit this easy, how would you really feel inside?” Kavan tossed after the other man’s retreating form.

“- Just let me walk away, Mr. Emerson.” Brigadier Kensington’s voice was a low growl.

Standing his ground beside her, Kavan continued, heedless of the warning. “Would you wonder if the life your daughter had been wishing for had finally come true, sir? Would you wonder if it’d been standing right in front of you?”

Brigadier Kensington didn’t deign to reply. His footsteps never halted in his retreat nor did he offer a backward glance. Still standing beside Kavan, McKenna threaded her hand under his elbow and stepped just a touch closer. Not caring that all of her relatives within earshot were watching, she turned and kissed his cheek affectionately. 

“You’ve quite the temper when defending what’s yours, don’t you, Kavan?” She whispered beside his ear.

“I’m not the only one,” he said with a smile. “But at least I know you come by it honestly?”

“Does it bother you,” she asked, suddenly turned hesitant and unsure.

“Not at all,” Kavan replied, wrapping his arm around her to draw her body just a little closer. “I’m drawn to that fire in you. If he’s where it came from then so be it. I can handle that. You’re an ember, but now you’re _my_ Ember.”

~~oOOo~~

“Ember, I’m home!” Kavan called out as he dropped his keys into the dish on the table beside the front door.

Toeing off his loafers, Kavan padded quietly toward the back of their flat. He assumed McKenna had gone back to work. She’d been jittery over breakfast that morning; restless with the energy of her current project being so close to completion but still flawed. 

Reaching the end of the short hallway, Kavan didn’t bother turning on the bedroom lights. He slipped off his suit jacket, intent on hanging it in the closet when he noticed McKenna’s sleeping form sprawled across one side of the bed. Beside her sat the giant stuffed bear he’d left on the bed that morning. It took a moment for Kavan to realize that the object in one of the bear’s paws was not the water pistol he’d left there earlier in the day.

Stepping closer, Kavan forgot to breath as he finally figured out what the shape was of the object that now occupied the bear’s paw. He reached forward, plucking it gingerly from where it had been carefully balanced. Turning the stick toward the light coming in through the doorway. Held carefully between thumb and forefinger, the pregnancy test in his grasp showed positive.

Kavan smiled softly.

“Oh, Kenna,” he murmured.

~~oOOo~~

_Standing right in front of you.  
Its been standing right in front of you..._


End file.
